Training is an on-going and key component to better business and happier employees.  Many companies are looking for inexpensive ways to keep their employees skills updated.  I have several ideas for meeting that objective: Bring in a professional speaker or trainer and share the expensive between several departments. Ask nearby businesses to split the cost of training in return for a number of seats for their employees or have your vendors sponsor training throughout the year as a way of keeping their services and products top of mind with your employees. Talk to your favorite training and consulting company about creating a series of recorded webinars that employees can access at any time at their convenience. Have a series of training podcasts created and have employees download them to their MP3 players. Ask vendors to supply free training on their products and services to employees. If you'd like more cost effective ways of training employees send me an e-mail at Eileen@eileenmcdargh.com.

Tip #10: Stop re-arranging the deck chairs. The greatest problem with change is that no one wants to admit that it can happen to them. Be honest about potential downturns and get ready. Don’t create the doomsday, hand-wringing scenarios but ones that are well thought-out with a plan of action in your back pocket. Contingency is the name of the game. It’s rather like a fire drill. If you don’t have a plan, you can burn up! Tip #9: Go with what “brung ya.” My great-grandfather always said that what he knew was “shoes”. He didn’t know how to publish books, how to sell pigs feet, or how to make a car. He stuck to what he knew: shoes. Since 1880, Reineberg’s Shoe Store has served the folks of York, PA. In an era where companies come and go, my family has stuck to what they know: shoes! It’s a simple testament to focus, to listening to the customers, to not speculating about acquisitions and mergers that make no sense from a resident knowledge base. Build your core and play to win from that strength. Tip #8 Stop reading and listening to “the news”. A steady dose of downturns, depressing statistics, gloomy forecasts, and shrill broadcasters can have anyone running for cover. Beside, it’s a waste of productive time to constantly be checking stock prices. Find one trusted source, listen or read it once, and then—GET ON WITH IT! What will you chose to do now to advance today? So much of resiliency is a mental trip—a mindset that says “Yes I can” regardless of all the “No you can’t” pundits. Positive presumption has moved football teams and armies. It can move you. Tip #7 Fire up. Don’t flame out. Exhausted teams can’t carry a ball, a race, or an Olympic flag. Make sure that what you ask yourself and your team to do has clear implication for the future—and not just some exercise in futility that is done “because it’s the way we’ve always done it.” This is a great time to streamline, to examine procedures, to throw out and to straighten up. Fire people up with possibilities and stories of hope. Can you make a vision real? Meaningful? Everyone needs that picture. No one hops out of bed to give shareholders a greater return on their investment. As Seth Godin writes, “Can you imagine Apple founder Steve Job showing up for a paycheck?” Not a chance. He showed up for something he believes in. Tip #6 Court and carry your valued customers. It is far too easy to lose valued customers if price and financial returns are the only basis for building a long-term relationship. Protect your customers now by asking what you can do to help them. Maybe they can’t buy your product or services now—but you might be able to offer something else. Or maybe, throw in a lagniappe—a little bit more. Tip #5 Communicate without ceasing. In the absence of information, people often connect the dots in the most pathological way possible. Transparency and honesty are keys in keeping people connected and calm. How much better it is to know what we face together and what is being done than to guess and gossip about situations. Tip #4 Celebrate small wins. When times are tough, we need a daily dose of encouragement. What would happen if you ended each day on a positive note? What would happen if you closed by mentally congratulating yourself on what you did do? Tip #3: Do what others are not willing to do. Look for innovation. Train employees. Yes, spend money. Wisely. That’s what your competition is not doing. If you focus on quality instead of cutting corners, you will be poised to come out on top. Let any pain be felt from the top first. Too many organizations and government agencies solve budget deficits by going after “the little guys” first. Big mistake. Remember when Chrysler CEO Iacocca took $1 in salary? Employee and customer admiration and loyalty resulted. Tip #2:  Upsize your way to greatness. This is definitely what few will do. But cutting into muscle and bone only makes the corporate body ill equipped to re-enter the business arena when the economy improves. While others must build back bench strength and start from scratch, you are ready because you have been training and hiring for this moment. Consider encouraging older employees to take half-time retirement so they can pass along knowledge to newer and younger employees. It might be the perfect time to upgrade your skills. Tip #1: Say thank you. Nothing attracts supporters like positive energy. When times are tough, staying positive seems like a hard battle. Gratitude is the key. The work conducted at the University of Pennsylvania by Dr. Martin Seligman underscores the value of expressing gratitude on a daily basis. Studies of character strength in tens of thousands of people across the U.S. have shown that feeling and practicing gratitude is the single strongest predictor of satisfaction with life. Find three people each day and tell them why you are grateful for them. Write down three “gratitudes” each night in a journal. You’ll sleep better. In the words of philosopher Howard Zinn, “To have hope one doesn’t need certainty, only possibility.” Here’s to the possibility of a transformed and brighter tomorrow. If you need support for getting through tough times read my book “Your Resiliency GPS: A Guide for Growing through Life" at https://www.eileenmcdargh.com/your-resiliency-gps-book

If you’re in the unfortunate place where you’ve had to let some folks go, be aware that the phrase “well, you’re lucky to have a job” will get you NO where.  Left unchecked, employees often suffer anger, guilt, anxiety, maybe even envy if someone got “a package”. Fail to address this and you could have a survivor epidemic on your hands. Here are some practical steps: Let employees know that employee cutbacks were done as a last measure and why. Let employees know that everyone—including you--is having a difficult time with the transition. Deliver a very clear, visual message of what you see is the PURPOSE of the organization that remains regardless of the economy. (And the purpose is NOT to increase shareholder value.  What is the VALUE of the product or service of what the organization does?) Clearly outline a PLAN for moving forward, indicating exactly what senior leadership will be doing.  Employees need to have comfort that someone is guiding the ship. Relate what is the PART employees will play in the new world. Don’t be vague and mushy.  People need to know exactly where the fit and what is expected of them Open yourself to hearing what expectations employees have of you. Be candid about what you can and cannot do.

I wrote this as the sun slowly sets behind the Channel Islands that loom out from the Santa Barbara coast. From my desk on the second floor of this retreat center, I see the mountain behind me turn into deeper shades of gray green and black. Soon, an almost full moon will rise and create havoc with my star gazing from the bench in the ancient oak grove. So far… looks like nothing has changed but… For the first time in 13 years, I couldn’t take the 4-mile trek to the top of my mountain. Mountain lion sightings are posted and the warnings read “Don’t hike alone. No small dogs. No children. Carry rocks in your pockets.” Rocks? The climb is hard enough!! Go with someone? Never found anyone crazy enough to come with me. No children? Ummm—I might be an entrée size for the big cat. CHANGE of plans! It felt strange, uncomfortable, and somewhat silly to substitute power walks up winding roads for the hidden beauty of live oaks, creeks, and hardscrabble rocks. But there was an alternative. I saw plants I had never seen, smiled at folks I would never have encountered, and still felt reasonably justified in my exercise to sit the rest of the day and write. CHANGE. For most of us, we enter 2021 facing massive change. The routes we thought were safe for our investments have been severely compromised. Our jobs might have vanished or been reduced. Industries are shattered. We pin our hopes on a new Administration to lead us out of this horrid mess. Truth be told, unless we remember the Depression, we’re faced with a never-before-seen-scenario that feels uncomfortable, strange, and –if we let it—downright frightening. What do we do about this? Yes—WE. WE all hold some small piece of a solution. No one person is going to hold our hand and take us another route. We must find alternatives to what had become so routine. We must greet each other on the way and share whatever we’ve learned. We must stop dwelling on the past, on blame, on wistful thinking, on wayward mountain lions and instead focus on what CHANGE can be made. Won’t feel the same. Won’t look the same. But if we face CHANGE together, the walk into the future might astound us with amazing possibilities.

Despite an economic slowdown and widespread layoffs, companies cannot afford to lose the talent war. In a knowledge-based, talent-centric global economy driven by ideas, the company with the best talent wins. Period. Jettisoning employees in financial tough times can very well result in losing industrious producers, top talent, longtime workers, and top managers. Such shortsightedness can be costly on many fronts. The cost of recruiting talented workers typically runs 70-200% of their annual salaries. A loss of sales staff can hurt a company's bottom line. Lose productive people and the customer might be penalized. And the resulting morale decline can take a toll on employee engagement-being fully connected with producing great results for an organization. A company doesn't make profits. People do. So here's the operative question: are job eliminations, workforce realignments strategically driven, designed to foster long-term growth? Do these practices allow organizations to reposition themselves competitively and take advantage of new opportunities? If so, than this is the message that must be spoken, written, lived from the top down. And retention-re-engagement-efforts become imperative. It's too late to undo the layoffs that have already happened. Let's focus on how to rebuild the broken communities that are left behind.

What does the implosion of the subprime market, the Madoff Ponzi scheme, and the TARP bailout of the banks all have in common? ANSWER: No one asked the “dumb questions” that might have prevented disaster or—in the case of some banks—a refusal to reveal just where the money has gone. Think about it: What would have happened if borrowers asked “Exactly what happens when the rates go up and how much will I owe?” What if the investors with Madoff had asked, “Just how are you able to get such returns? Can you tell me specifically the areas you invest in?” Of course, rumor has it that Madoff threw out people who questioned him. Hey—when you sit like a god no one bothers to look at the throne made of smoke. And how about Congress? Where were their questions? Such questions might have been: “Just what guarantees will you create to hold the recipients accountable for performance with the monies? What shall we do to hold the Treasury responsible and what will we establish as immediate and daily oversight?” Here’s the point. The world has become so filled with jargon and complexity that it is very difficult to even grasp exactly what is happening. And because it is so complex, we’re often afraid to let our confusion show. We assume that other people understand and we don’t. So we nod our heads as if we understand the term “derivative”. We nod our head when we hear of a plan for building roads and schools as a solution to unemployment without realizing that much of our employment base runs on the use of intellectual capital instead of heavy machinery. Question: “What is the plan for creating jobs in this sector?” The value of seemingly “dumb” questions is that it makes everyone stop and think. It invites the deeper exploration. At the very least, it educates the questioner and at best, it can reveal fallacies in logic and action. But “dumb” questions also require courage. People get rude, defensive and even hostile when challenged. To deflect these behaviors, allow the question to be something that indicates you need assistance. “I guess I must be slow but could you please explain…” or “I hear what you are saying but I am having a hard time following. Please outline…” When we cast ourselves as being “dumb” through smart-as-fox questions, we might do everything from forestalling a bad decision to creating a far more appropriate plan of action. That means that “dumb” could very well be the new SMART.

Novations Group, a global professional services firm, recently released the results of communications survey. The information deeply supports why many organizations are buying one of my newer books, "Talk Ain't Cheap... It’s Priceless!". See if this does not ring true in your experience: They rely too much on e-mail and have little face-to-face time with employees. E-mail is a dangerous tool if overused. It runs the risk of being misunderstood, ignored, or in some cases, inflammatory. Often e-mail is without context and precious time evaporates in an electronic back-and-forth. They assume a single message is enough. Recall Advertising 101. It takes at least three times for a message to penetrate. Different people receive messages differently. Some prefer to hear a message while others lean toward the written word. They have no feedback loop in place. Feedback is the breakfast of champions. However, whether knowingly or unknowingly, senior managers might dismiss or not encourage feedback on communication. Their messages lack clarity. Mark Twain once said, “Pardon the long letter. I didn’t have time for a short one.” This great author knew that clarity and brevity take time and skill. The more one is an “expert”, the greater is the chance that what is clear to an experienced mind is simply muddy and confusing to others. Take the time. There are many of us who can help managers develop the skill.

It's not my imagination: we've become far too accepting of jerks at work. Bullying behavior is on the rise and it's not just on playground—but in work places. Look around. Have you noticed some certifiable jerks? These are folks who constantly demean, ridicule, put down, or purposely ignore those with less "power" than they have. And it's tolerated. One health care organization told me of a physician who regularly, verbally assaults nurses and interns. A vice president in a development company uses the silent treatment as a way of telling an employee that she's a non-entity, even going so far as to threaten staff if they speak to this employee! A law firm keeps a rain maker despite the fact he eats colleagues and administrative assistants for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We've made heroes of other jerks—even tolerating jerk-like behavior in some folks who represent the United States. Sadly, behavior ignored is behavior endorsed. Complacency equals complicity. The organization and its leaders develop a reputation for arrogance and insensitivity. It makes little sense. Getting and keeping good talent is one of the top two worries of CEOs. Who wants to work with jerks? Research also indicates that performance and productivity actually increase when jerks are eliminated. Here’s where to start: Create a NO JERK rule and mean it. Confront jerk behavior as soon as it happens. Train everyone how to identify jerk behavior and how to react, respond, and report. Look yourself in the eye and ask for honest feedback. We all carry some of the jerk gene inside of us.

Words are self-fulfilling prophecies. Retreat from the market. Fire a boat load of folks. Horde cash in your mattress. And then, go sit in the corner with a pillow over your head. I don’t know about you, but I think practicality mixed with wisdom should be more the order of the day. Start by a very practical evaluation of just HOW you work and what you produce. What are value-added activities rather than mere niceties or outmoded ways of doing things? Remember that when the market turns around—and it will—you want the best and the brightest at your side. You want customers who have stayed because together you found ways to link hands and make it through this rough water. Crisis can give rise to innovation, to new alliances, and to an honest assessment of just what matters. It’s all in how you look at it.

Despite an economic slowdown and widespread layoffs, companies cannot afford to lose the talent war. In a knowledge-based, talent-centric global economy driven by ideas, the company with the best talent wins. Period. Jettisoning employees in financial tough times can very well result in losing industrious producers, top talent, longtime workers, and top managers. Such shortsightedness can be costly on many fronts. The cost of recruiting talented workers typically runs 70-200% of their annual salaries. A loss of sales staff can hurt a company's bottom line. Loose productive people and the customer might be penalized. And the resulting morale decline can take a toll on employee engagement-being fully connected with producing great results for an organization. A company doesn't make profits. People do. So here's the operative question: are job eliminations, workforce realignments strategically driven, designed to foster long-term growth? Do these practices allow organizations to reposition themselves competitively and take advantage of new opportunities? If so, then this is the message that must be spoken, written, lived from the top down. And retention-re-engagement- efforts become imperative. It's too late to undo the layoffs that have already happened. Let's focus on how to rebuild the broken communities that are left behind.

Human Resource Magazine reported some time ago a direct correlation between business benefits of work & family programs and increased customer retention. First Tennessee Bank surveyed employees and customers at their branches and found that by meeting employees' needs, it encouraged employees in turn to provide more value to the customers. To assure the effectiveness of work/life programs, address issues with a systemic culture-change focus rather than as a benefit. Examine traditional assumptions such as: hours worked are the only indicator of commitment and productivity; part-time workers aren't as committed; single people can give more time to work; men have at-home wives; numbers of meetings attended equate to how you value the company. Involve everyone in the organization. Management might change the assumptions but a co-worker could hold that a part-time peer is "shirking". Examine workflow. Does the system reward people for working all night, even though the rest of the workweek suffers from sleep deprivation?? If work is cyclical, can there be flexibility built into the schedule? Can work be realigned to accommodate a task that needs uninterrupted, focused time? Something to consider.

In the winter of 2005, intense storms lashed Southern California, pouring record levels of rain into catch basins, along normally dry creek beds, and across the driest, most barren place in North America, Death Valley. Following the wettest period since record keeping in 1911, this forbidden wilderness became festooned with bright yellow, pink, white and deep purple blossoms. The rain fell gently into the salt-crusted soil, washing off the waxy protective coating from millions of seeds that had lain dormant for years in ground where temperatures zoom as high as 200 degrees. Flying into this multihued panorama hovered the Sphinz moth, a pollinating marvel the size of a hummingbird. Death Valley became the Garden of Eden. Have you ever encountered someone whose persona resembled Death Valley: dry, impenetrable, rigid, without the moisture of a smile or the glimmer of optimism? Perhaps someone like Mary Ellen? If you watched Mary Ellen walk into a room, you almost saw the dust fly off her mouth if it cracked in an unaccustomed smile. Her shoulders hunched forward and to most ears, the tone of her voice alternated between hostile and imperious. Few people wanted to be around her. Too bad. She had a crackerjack mind that remembered facts and figures better than a data base. Her command of language startled even the most educated and her creative eye rendered solutions for the architectural firm. It’s just that no one wanted her dealing with clients. Too abrasive. Larry decided to “spread some rain”. He began by asking her questions about how she developed an interest in architecture and design. He discovered it was her way of trying to connect with a father who built houses and who also ignored her. Like the Death Valley seeds, he realized she had erected a protective shield as a result of past hurts, insecurity, perceived indifference or disdain of others. He shared a little about his family. She opened up again. Then he risked even more. He pointed out the positive strengths she brought to the firm. Kindly but firmly, he talked about her blind spot. He told her that he KNEW she had no idea how she was coming across and that he believed she was better than that. Larry spread some rain. She blossomed. Oh not all at once, but slowly the firm saw some shifts. She started to even wear brighter colors. You might say she began flowering. All because someone saw in her some internal loveliness that she didn’t see for herself.